Author
Swaminathan Iyer
Product @ Interview Kickstart | Ex Media.net | Business Management - XLRI Jamshedpur. Loves building things and burning pizzas!
The Lyft software engineer interview process is one of the most challenging interview processes. Lyft always looks for great additions to their teams who can constantly work through challenges of scale, optimize their network of passengers and drivers and make complicated products intuitive and easy to understand for their customers. To crack the Lyft interview process, you must be interested in building the future of transportation. Through the interview, Lyft looks at your skills and tests your knowledge of various computer science concepts.
Lyft is one of the top tech companies and growing rapidly. So, software engineers at Lyft get a tremendous opportunity to work with various complex and highly technical systems that have a radical to intermediate impact on millions worldwide. Read on to learn about the Lyft software interview process, the most anticipated questions in your technical interview, and tips on how to crack the interview.
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Tech experts at Lyft look for software engineers beyond technical talent. They look for people who are excited about Lyft’s values and missions. They thoroughly screen the candidate by checking whether they’ll code solutions neatly and efficiently or not.
Lyft looks for an entry-level programming gig to write codes for everything from cloud infrastructure to customer-service efficiency. You should have a computer science degree (bachelor’s, master’s, or Ph.D.) to be eligible for the Lyft software engineer role. Along with the degree, you must have experience with object-oriented programming.
After the Lyft software interview process, the final score is based on the communication skills, i.e., how well they had described their thought process, coding and problem-solving abilities, and knowledge about computer science, particularly what comes from data structures.
There are four stages to the software engineer Lyft interview process. They are:
This is the first stage of your Lyft software interview processes. The recruiter will put direct questions mostly based on your resume and fit for the software engineer role. The interviewer might ask about your past experiences, interests, and why you choose to work at Lyft.
Your resume speaks a lot about yourself and will help you get shortlisted for a software engineer role at Lyft. Check out here to learn how to write a professional resume.
You will be spending an hour or so with the tech expert at Lyft during this stage of your interview process. They’ll ask technical questions, both basic and experienced ones, and cover various computer science categories. This round and after that will be conducted over Coderpad.
After you have cleared your technical phone interview, you’ll be invited for an on-site interview. The on-site Lyft software interview consists of four rounds:
You should have a crisp in-depth understanding of the basics in various programming languages, experience as a software engineer, and great communication skills to crack your on-site interview at Lyft.
This is the last stage of your Lyft software engineer interview process. If you make it to this round, the tech experts at Lyft will match you with potential teams where you’ll have explanatory calls with the managers on those teams. These calls are more like conversations rather than interviews. Here you can get to know the team and determine the mutual fit for the role at Lyft.
At your Lyft interview, you can expect questions based on system design. The software engineer at Lyft will ask you to design a large relevant to Lyft’s operation using Google Draw. Here are a few sample Lyft software engineer interview questions, both technical and behavioral, for your reference that you must practice creating a solid impression on the interviewer:
Recommended reading: Top Lyft Interview Questions for Software Engineers and Developers
The Lyft APM interview process also consists of four stages; however, the levels of each stage are different from that of a software engineer. The four stages are:
This stage is based on your resume. If you have mentioned excellent skills in the resume, the chances are you’ll be shortlisted for the next stage. For a product manager at Lyft, you must have excellent communication, prior experience working as a product manager, and a keen interest in working with Lyft and improving their services. You must show them that you are fit for the product manager role to qualify for the next round.
This stage of the Lyft APM interview process is very analytical, KPI, and metric-focused. Being a data-driven company, Lyft expects product managers to look at data to make decisions. At this point, you will be asked how to identify and prioritize opportunities and execute them to build products. They will also ask to adapt and troubleshoot problems with new information. They will also focus on analyzing a set of constraints and coming up with the right set of metrics successfully.
This round is conducted in three stages:
The results of this round usually take about a week.
This round is the same as the Lyft software engineer interview process. Here you will be matched with the potential teams consisting of product managers, get to know them, and determine the mutual fit for the role.
Below are a few Lyft associate product manager (APM) interview questions that will help you boost your interview prep:
Recommended reading: How to Crack a System Design Interview.
Take a look at some tips that can help you crack the Lyft interview process:
Recommended reading: 10 Tips for Radical Interview Preparation.
1. How to crack the Lyft software engineer interview process in one attempt?
While taking an interview, software engineers at Lyft look for 45% correctness, 35% clean code, and 20% performance. So to crack your Lyft interview, you must check whether your solution works, if the code is clean and efficient, and comment where appropriate.
2. What is unique about the Lyft software engineer interview process?
Lyft’s most unique software engineer interview process aspect is its laptop programming test. It is a 90-minute interview where the software interviewer will give you a situation, and you’ll solve that problem using the internet and a coding language of your choice. To crack these questions, you must learn how to code efficiently.
3. Why does the Lyft software interview process consist of behavioral questions?
The PMs and software engineers at Lyft want to check your background, experiences, and interests. Therefore, they’ll conduct a 45-minute behavioral interview with an engineering manager. There they will check your expertise, ownership, collaboration, learning, values, and impact while you answer the questions.
4. How to crack the Lyft over-the-phone interview?
You must research Lyft’s values and missions. Use their products to determine their potential. Investigate in-depth what compels you to work there, what resonates about the company to you, and how you will improve the product experience. Giving the answers based on your experiences with a few examples in mind and tied into Lyft values will help you nail the Lyft over-the-phone interview.
5. What are product-based questions asked during the Lyft APM interview process?
The interviewer will check your focus on product knowledge, instincts, creativity, and awareness while asking product-based questions. Your interviewer will guide you through the way; however, you should lead the conversation. You can expect questions like why it’s a great product, what you’d do if you were a CEO or APM at the company, how you would’ve evolved the existing product, and other related questions.
Recommended reading: Lyft Software Engineer and Developer Salary — All Levels.
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